Ninety-seven organisations from across Scottish society have written to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon calling for a Scottish Environment Act. Download the letter here, or read the text in full below.
The First Minister The Scottish Government St Andrew’s House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
27 June 2019
Dear First Minister,
As you recently acknowledged, our planet faces a climate emergency. Inextricably linked to this emergency is looming ecological disaster. Time is running out to tackle these huge global challenges. It will take concerted, radical action from leaders around the world to pave the way for transformative change in line with our sustainable development commitments.
We must not let Brexit derail us from tackling these twin problems head on. Whatever the outcome of the current political uncertainties we must set robust, binding targets for nature’s recovery, to safeguard both Scotland’s nature and its people.
This is why we, the undersigned, have come together from across society to ask you to bring forward a new Scottish Environment Act, a step which has already been supported by 22,000 members of the public through the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign.
Ensuring our world is rich in nature is the best insurance we have against dangerous climate heating. Protecting, restoring and enhancing Scotland’s environment will help to limit temperature increases and help to adapt to some changes that we already cannot avoid.
Restoring Scotland’s natural world to its full potential would give us so much more than insulation against climate change.
Everyone has the right to a clean and healthy environment. Nature enriches people’s lives. It cleans our air and our water, improves our physical and mental health, underpins Scotland’s global image and exports, and improves the places we live.
For all of these reasons, we believe your Government should put forward a new Scottish Environment Act that makes Scotland’s vision to be an environmental world leader a reality.
Yours sincerely,
Aberlour Children’s Charity Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group Bat Conservation Trust British Dragonfly Society British Ecological Society – Scottish Policy Group Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust Bumblebee Conservation Trust Butterfly Conservation Scotland Cairngorms Campaign Carnegie UK Trust Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management Clean Coast Outer Hebrides Coastal Communities Network Community Resources Network Scotland Dingwall Wind Co-op Dumfries and Galloway Badger Network EAUC – Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust Fair Trade Scotland Fernaig Community Trust Fidra Fintry Development Trust Friends of the Earth Scotland Friends of the Earth West Fife Froglife Trust (Scotland) Greener Melrose Greenpeace UK Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust Human Rights Consortium Huntly & District Swift Group Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment Islay Development Initiative John Muir Trust Keep Scotland Beautiful Learning for Sustainability Scotland Leith Community Crops in Pots Marine Conservation Society Mountaineering Scotland National Trust for Scotland North East Mountain Trust North West Mull Community Woodland Company Nourish Scotland Paths for All Permaculture Scotland Permeate studios Planning Democracy Plantlife Scotland Project Seagrass Ramblers Scotland Reforesting Scotland Revive Royal Scottish Geographic Society Royal Zoological Society of Scotland RSPB Scotland SCAPE Trust Scotland the Big Picture Scotland’s International Development Alliance Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society Scottish Badgers Scottish Campaign for National Parks Scottish Communities Climate Action Network Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing Scottish Community Alliance Scottish Community Development Centre Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations Scottish Countryside Rangers’ Association Scottish Environment LINK Scottish Farming and Wildlife Advisers’ Group Scottish Geodiversity Forum Scottish Ornithologists’ Club Scottish Raptor Study Group Scottish Seabird Centre Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Scottish Wild Beaver group Scottish Wild Land Group Scottish Wildlife Trust Sealife Adventures Soil Association Scotland Southern Upland Partnership Stop Climate Chaos Scotland Sustaining Dunbar Sustaining North Berwick The Conservation Volunteers Transform Scotland Transition Black Isle Transition Edinburgh Trees for Life Ullapool Sea Savers UN House Scotland United Nations Association Scotland Whale and Dolphin Conservation Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Woodland Trust Scotland WWF Scotland
It’s an unavoidable truth that in nature conservation, success can sometimes produce intangible results. Much of what we try to achieve inevitably comprises stopping bad things happening to the environment. A successful bridge-builder has a bridge to look at where there was none; a fund manager, funds to help spend; a medic has well people, who were previously sick. The successful environmental campaigner might find that the output of years of effort is, for example, dunes and maritime grasslands that remain just as they were before. Nothing looks different – all that’s new is the invisible knowledge that these delicate and precious habitats have not been obliterated by the golf course or power station that someone tried to build over them.
Of course, conservation must also work to actively enhance the natural environment and make positive transformations. But this preventative work is and will remain a critical basis for our shared response to the unfolding global ecological crisis – and nowhere is that more important than in the challenge of invasive non-native species.
The recent report of IPBES (the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) confirmed both that nature and the essential services it provides for humanity are deteriorating fast across the planet. This deterioration is caused by 5 major direct drivers: land and sea-use changes; direct exploitation; climate change; pollution; and the introduction of invasive non-native species – INNS.
People moving any animal, plant or other organism from its native range and, deliberately or accidentally, introducing it into the wild, is a potential threat to wildlife. Geographic barriers such as oceans, mountains, deserts and currents have through geological time restricted the mixing of wildlife in different regions. Species develop independently in different parts of the world, and this generates much of global biodiversity. Non-native species introductions, in effect, break down these barriers. The rate of establishment of new species is increasing at world and UK scales. INNS effects are compounded by climate change and are predicted to worsen in future. The globalisation of trade – the most important vector of INNS – is increasing species movements and rates of release.
In Scotland, we already have non-native Rhododendron and conifers damaging our most important woodland and peatland habitats; non-native predators predating seabirds and waders on our islands; invasive marine organisms threatening internationally important marine ecosystems in our sea lochs.
The graph above shows a simplified, but all-too familiar, pattern of establishment of an invasive species. It’s clear that ecological damage increases with spread – but also, critically, the costs involved in terms of both impacts and the necessary responsive action escalate dramatically. Of course, we must work to strategically manage damaging INNS that are already established. But it is hundreds, sometimes thousands of times cheaper to prevent INNS establishing in the first place than it is to manage the issue after the event. Therefore, the Convention on Biological Diversity calls for a hugely elevated emphasis on prevention – often called biosecurity – when it comes to INNS impacts on nature and economies. It is also why the EU Environmental Principle of Preventative Action is a key guiding principle for effective, informed action to protect nature, and one that we must, as a matter of national priority, be enshrined explicitly in Scottish legislation at the earliest opportunity.
Do we really need to prevent every single egg, of every tiny non-native shrimp, from ever arriving here? Thankfully, no. Research is clear that the best predictor of INNS establishment in the wild is simply the rate at which non-native organisms are released. By taking sensible, proportionate, but effective preventative action we can reduce that rate, and thus reduce establishment probability. This became clear in New Zealand through the 20th century. Firm but proportionate biosecurity measures were introduced – and the results have been spectacular:
Non-native mammals establishing in New Zealand and in Europe over recent centuries. From Armon R.H., Zenetos A. (2015) Invasive Alien Species and Their Indicators. Armon R., Hänninen O. (eds) Environmental Indicators. Springer, Dordrecht
Across the UK countries, funding for INNS biosecurity runs at around £1 million per year. That is just a tiny fraction – less than 1/200th – of biosecurity investment protecting agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture. In Scotland we have important expertise and projects developing for biosecurity issues: on islands, for example, the RSPB is leading a biosecurity project for all our most important seabird colonies. We can be leaders in this field – but for that, we must protect our environment and our economic future by investing properly in biosecurity now – and we must legislate to bring the Principle of Preventative Action squarely and unambiguously into Scots law.
Here at Have You Got The Bottle? we’re fighting for Scotland’s nature. We know about the negative impacts that litter has on wildlife; from insects and small mammals getting stuck inside bottles, to seabirds and creatures feeding plastic to their young. Evidence suggests that more than 140,000 bottles and cans are littered in Scotland every single day. That’s why we’re delighted that the Scottish Government have committed to introducing a deposit return system for most PET plastic bottles, steel and aluminium cans, and glass bottles before the end of this parliamentary session.
However, there’s increasing scientific evidence of the critical state of Scotland’s wildlife and habitats, and a deposit return system will only address a small part of the problem. That’s why we’re supporting Scottish Environment LINK’s Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign. We want to see a Scottish Environment Act that protects Scotland’s wild places for the benefit of people and nature; one that gives clear ambitions for an environmental policy and a positive direction towards a more sustainable future for people and nature in Scotland.
Scottish Environment LINK has noted that while recent consultations on Environmental Principles and Governance have been a step in the right direction, there is much still to be done.
At Have You Got The Bottle? we’re particularly interested in ensuring that Scotland commits to the European Union’s environmental principles. The “polluter pays” principle is especially close to our hearts as it expresses the commonly accepted notion that those who produce pollution or environmental degradation should bear the costs of redressing it. This is exactly what happens in a well-run deposit return system, which is funded in part by a small producer fee for items placed in the system, and also through unredeemed deposits if the consumer chooses not to reclaim their money, thereby increasing the chance of their empties ending up as litter. This is a sound principle that can be applied in many other areas, and has already helped drive up the quality of our drinking water and beaches. Find out how you can support this important campaign at: https://www.fightforscotlandsnature.scot/get-involved/
The Scottish Seabird Centre is supporting 37 of Scotland’s leading environmental NGOs in calling for the principles of environmental governance to be spelt out in Scots law.
Without a doubt Scotland’s land, seas and iconic wildlife have benefited from the EU ‘Nature Directives’ – the Birds and Habitats Directive and other environmental pillars such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The EU Bathing Water Directive has also encouraged countries to innovate and tackle pollution around our coastline. The protection, monitoring and management standards we have benefited from are, however, at risk of being rolled back years when we leave the EU. That’s why the Scottish Seabird Centre is supporting 37 environmental charities, all members of Scottish Environment Link, to call for the underlying principles of environmental protection to be explicitly set out in Scots law.
Scotland has over 18,000 kilometres of coastline, almost 6 times the area of sea to land (764,678 square kilometres to the 200 nautical mile limit), 61 percent of the UK’s seas and 13 percent of the EU seas. This supports important marine habitats such as cold-water coral, kelp forests and flame shell beds, and iconic species including dolphins, porpoises, seals and basking sharks. Our seas also support a third of Europe’s breeding seabirds and we are proud of the international importance of these breeding colonies.
Much progress to protect our seas and iconic marine wildlife has been made under EU legislation, but the recent IPBES Global Assessment on the state of biodiversity brings into sharp focus the threats that still need to be tackled – climate change, invasive non-native species, changes in the use of the seas, exploitation of our seas and pollution. The global assessment states that 66 percent of our global marine environment has been affected by human action. A stark reminder of this is the visible presence of plastics in our marine environment, which have increased tenfold over the last 20 years, and are impacting on 267 species, including 44 percent of seabirds.
Whilst we welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform’s – Roseanna Cunningham MSP – stated ambition to ensure the important underlying principles of environmental protection (precaution, prevention, polluter pays and rectifying pollution at source) will continue after we leave the EU; there are no certainties this will be the case. Certainty will only be achieved by embedding these principles firmly in Scots law. Appropriate and effective mechanisms also need to be in place to monitor the health of our seas, to scrutinise performance against commitments and to hold the government of the day to account.
Collective cross-parliament support and action, rather than just words, are now required to demonstrate that the ambition is real. That’s why the Scottish Seabird Centre supports the Fight for Scotland’s Nature core recommendation that the environmental principles should be embedded in Scots law.
Read our article by Dr Phoebe Cochrane, LINK’s Sustainable Economics Officer published in the Scotsman today.
Climate change has been hitting the headlines recently and the Scottish Government has been one of the first to acknowledge the climate emergency and swiftly respond to scientific evidence that Scotland needs to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The First Minister has committed to looking at all our policies to make sure they are consistent with those ambitions. This is absolutely the right thing to do and environmental charities from across Scotland have welcomed this strong response.
One of the most obvious places to look for change is our own carbon footprint. This measure includes all the greenhouse gas emissions that occur in other countries as a result of our choices as consumers and the products we import. Because we import a significant proportion of our manufactured products, often from countries still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, the carbon impact of our imports is significant. In 2015, these emissions amounted to 41.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, nearly three times the total emission associated with all forms of transport in Scotland. Despite Scotland being ahead on achieving our 2020 climate targets, our carbon footprint only fell by 8 per cent between 1998 and 2015.
Other far-reaching environmental impacts of our lifestyles have been highlighted recently. We have heard about the extent of marine litter and the harmful effects of plastic pollution on wildlife and human health, as well as the chemicals and quantity of water used to produce much of our fast fashion.
The common thread is the unsustainable nature of our consumption – what we buy and how it is made. Recent reports find that consumption of natural resources – things like minerals, metals and timber – has tripled since the 1970s and is set to further double by 2060. Ninety per cent of biodiversity loss and water stress is caused by resource extraction and processing. If everyone in the world followed our lifestyle, we would need approximately three planets to sustain us. Earth Overshoot Day for the UK was 8th May this year. Overshoot Day is calculated by comparing the ecological footprint (carbon, food, timber, fibre, land consumption) with the capacity of the planet to renew these resources.
We should tread more lightly on our planet through optimising the use of resources, rather than exploitation for maximum gain – we need a new model for production and consumption. Environment charities in Scotland, members of Scottish Environment LINK, are calling for a reduction in our carbon and material footprints through steering our economy to one that is more circular, where products are designed to last as long as possible, are easy to repair, and made out of materials that can be recycled. Such an economy should be restorative and regenerative, replenishing and sustaining our natural systems.
This is not a new idea – the Scottish Government has a circular economy Strategy: Making Things Last. There has been valuable work in supporting innovative enterprises and investing in specific institutions, such as the Scottish Remanufacturing Institute. The Scottish Government is banning products such as plastic- stemmed cotton buds, has introduced levies to disincentivise the use of plastic bags, and is bringing in a deposit return system for bottles and cans. The Government has also committed to bring forward a Circular Economy and Zero Waste Bill in this parliamentary term. This bill is urgently needed to establish legally-binding targets for reductions in our carbon and raw material footprints. The targets should be accompanied by plans which detail the steps required and drive change in policy.
Public appetite to address our environmental impact has never been higher. Businesses and investors like a level playing field and a clear policy horizon. Following the Scottish Government’s leadership within the UK on a deposit return system, now is the time to continue to lead the way with a circular economy bill.
On 31 May, Francesca Oswaska, CEO of Scottish Natural Heritage, gave the RSE Peter Wilson lecture: Not too late to act for climate change. In her speech she described the challenging yet opportunity rich moment we find ourselves in.
At LINK we would agree with the three challenges that Francesca outlined on harnessing science, engineering and technology, changing land, water and sea management and shifting behaviours, but we think we need to act quickly.
Given that we have 11 years to realign the world along a low carbon pathway in order to avoid dangerous climate change, recent events underline how much public support there is for real action on this, especially from young people. We have evidence on climate change from the UKCC Net zero report and the IPBES Global Assessment of Biodiversity starkly outlines the ongoing and catastrophic decline in biodiversity. Francesca made the clear case that a nature rich future provides our best insurance cover against the climate emergency.
The Scottish Government has already acted in declaring a climate emergency and lodging amendments to the climate change bill to achieve greenhouse gas emissions of zero by 2045. However, climate change is just one of five drivers of biodiversity loss – the others are changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; pollution and invasive non-native species. Albeit climate change is a driver that intensifies and exacerbates the effect of the other four. An example is that climate change is reducing the persistence of year-round snow, which is directly limiting the extent of arctic habitat in Scotland.
Nature based solutions clearly offer us the best and quickest way forward. There are immediate actions that could have a significant impact: ensuring the next climate change plan includes and supports the roll out of nature based solutions such as increasing the ability of Scotland’s peatlands, woodlands, seas and waterbodies to sequester carbon, strengthening the Land Use Strategy and introducing regional land use planning, delivering a National Ecological Network and developing a nitrogen balance sheet.
On land, water and sea management for example, while Scotland can do much more on peatland restoration, the UKCC net zero report recommends releasing 20% of agricultural land for carbon capture and biomass production. Of the 73% of land registered as agricultural holdings, about 36% of this is rough grazing. Reducing grazing pressure and enabling woodland regeneration in this 36% would make a significant contribution to Scotland’s carbon capture and would contribute to reversing the decline in habitat quality and biodiversity loss in the Scottish uplands.
Changing how we manage land, water and seas is only effective where that change is carried out in the right place. And to ensure that the right place is managed for its best purpose is where an actively implemented and effective Land Use Strategy comes in. However, this on its own is not enough. For Scotland to meet the climate emergency and halt the loss of biodiversity, nature needs space too. A National Ecological Network provides a strategic planning tool for the natural environment to enhance connectivity between habitats, give communities better access to high quality, wildlife rich greenspace, provide opportunities to protect and enhance natural capital and improve the range and quality of ecosystem services whilst at the same time making Scotland a more attractive place to live, do business, invest and visit. It is also the most efficient way of ensuring that nature thrives and is woven though our land and sea use. The current approach is nature being left the bits no one else needs is directly resulting in the declines we are seeing and are reported by IPES.
A key part of this are Scotland’s Protected Areas: these are effectively the refuges where nature is doing best and from where nature can spread back into suitable habitat given the space and means to move. Scotland’s current Protected Areas need to be retained, effectively monitored so we can see how the nature is doing, buffered and protected from adverse impacts and connected to the wider landscape though the provision of space and vectors species need to move, be that wind, water or the presence of micro habitats. As they stand today, Scotland’s protected areas are in aspic – constrained, uninvested in and as ecological processes march on, changing sometimes for the better but not always. In the face of climate change, these refuges are needed more than ever for the role they will have to play in boosting the nature based solutions we will need to adopt.
None of this can happen without investment though. The environment sector can offer the range, scale and innovative solutions Scotland needs to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies we currently face. LINK members are working together and with stakeholders to ensure that efficiencies of scale and appropriateness of action are maximised but the low levels of support for nature and landscapes from private funding success outlined in Where the green grants went and the ongoing decline in public funding for nature are insufficient. For too long, nature has been taken for granted and the external costs of resource use and depletion are not being paid. New ways of funding nature based solutions are urgently needed. It is clear that nature is not an added extra and a luxury for those who use the outdoors: nature provides the fundamentals of life for all in Scotland. But it cannot be protected and restored for free.
Collaboration highlights urgent need of laws to protect our landscapes and wild nature
The John Muir Trust has joined 35 of Scotland’s leading environmental NGOs in calling for a Scottish Environment Act to protect Scotland’s wild places for the benefit of people and nature.
The campaign has been launched by members of Scottish Environment LINK, voluntary organisations that share a common goal of contributing to a more environmentally sustainable society across varied conservation interests from bat conservation to Scotland’s outdoor ranger services.
The campaign has set out the need for a Scottish Environment Act – set against increasing scientific evidence of the critical state of wildlife and habitats – that gives clear ambitions for an environmental policy and a positive direction towards a more sustainable future for people and nature in Scotland.
Scottish Environment LINK has noted that while recent consultations on Environmental Principles and Governance have been a step in the right direction, there is much still to be done and a sense of urgency lacking given that the situation is compounded by Brexit and the risk of EU environmental protections, that have played a positive role , now unravelling.
The Trust is particularly interested in protections for all wild places; from Caledonian pine forests and coastal habitats to peatlands and our stunning mountain landscapes, from damaging land management practices including hill tracks, over-grazing and inappropriate built developments. It would also like to see a growing recognition and focus on supporting natural solutions to climate change.
“Our opportunities for experiencing wildness continue to be diminished through landscape degradation and species decline”, says Hebe Carus, Policy Officer at the John Muir Trust. “It’s vital we don’t reduce our existing commitments as a society to uphold our human right to a healthy environment. We must have laws in place to protect, conserve and repair our wildest places for the benefit of everyone”.
Read our latest blog from our Chief Officer, Deborah Long.
The environment is back. It’s always been there of course, gradually changing but just recently a number of doors have been opened as collectively we start to recognise the enormity of the environmental challenges facing the world. LINK members use science and evidence on which to build effective solutions to tackle these challenges. Together we are working to achieve our aim of securing sustainable development in and beyond Scotland, where all aspects of the country’s environment are valued to enhance the quality of life for all.
Where are these doors?
August 2018: Climate strikes: Governments have been caught unawares by the demands coming from children that they and today’s society leave a decent legacy: a healthy and fully functioning environment, able to support the needs of future generations: ‘we are just passing on the words of science. Our only demand is that you start listening to it. And then start acting.’ (Greta Thunberg).
October 2018: Extinction rebellion: Spooked again by mobilising mass protects against nature loss and climate change: Rebel for life. For the planet. For our children’s children’s futures
28 April 2019: Nicola Sturgeon declares a climate emergency in Scotland: as First Minister of Scotland, I am declaring that there is a climate emergency. And Scotland will live up to our responsibility to tackle it. On 14 May, Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet secretary for the Environment laid out what that would entail: To deliver the transformational change that is required, we need structural changes across the board; to our planning, procurement and financial policies, processes and assessments. That is exactly what we’ll do.
6 May 2019: The UN Global Assessment of Nature: “The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
“The Report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” he said. “Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.
It’s hard to say how long these doors will stay open before politicians decide that it’s all too difficult and too expensive to act and will take much longer than they have in electoral cycles anyway. The role of eNGOs is to provide the expertise and solutions that should be implemented now to make real and immediate progress in tackling the challenges we all face. LINK is, in effect, getting our penguins in a line ready to provide guidance on solutions we know will work.
To do this, LINK will be:
Coherent and truthful
Concise and targeted
Solutions focussed
United in message and approach.
Inspiring trust amongst policy makers to enable them to act within public opinion.
We know no one organisation can do this alone. The environment NGO sector in Scotland is sometimes seen as noisy, disagreeable, unable to agree a line and unrealistic to boot. Of course we are. The sector is full of passionate, energetic and expert people. However, we are committed to coming together and we are working on providing a vision for Scotland that enables policy makers to take effective action, by identifying the keystone actions and pursuing those and coming together as united voice, with environmental agencies and supporters in other sectors.
The vison we are starting form was first detailed in our Referendum Challenge in 2014. This, we think, provides the basis of a vision going forward and encapsulate what Scottish Environment LINK and our members are looking for.
A Scotland where…
We measure the success of our society intelligently
Education reconciles economic, social and environmental issues
We are successfully tackling climate change and using a precautionary approach to all development
Our natural and built environment benefits people’s health
The uses we make of our land, sea and air are integrated and sustainable
We protect and enhance our ecosystems and all the species in them
Decisions are taken as close to people as possible
We value and nurture our landscape and cultural heritage
Openness and public participation are central features of our governance
We learn from, and play our part in, the rest of the world
A serious surfer doesn’t plan to go surfing next Tuesday at two o’clock. You go surfing when there are waves and the tide and wind are right. (Yvon Chouinard, Funder of Patagonia Inc.)
We are in the midst of a climate emergency. Incontrovertible evidence presented by the IPCC published last October laid out the dramatic consequences of failing to contain global warming to a 1.5 C increase above pre-industrial levels. In response, governments in the UK asked our own climate science expert body, the UK Committee on Climate Change, to consider how the UK can contribute to stopping global warming.
In Scotland, this came at a particularly important time as a new Scottish Climate Change Bill was going through Scottish Parliament which sought to align Scottish climate ambitions with the Paris Agreement and the commitment to limit temperature rise to 1.5 C.
On the 2nd of May, the Committee on Climate Change published its much awaited report. It recommended that Scotland can reach a net zero target for greenhouse gases by 2045 – ahead of the UK as a whole which could meet the same target by 2050. The report was published a week after Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland declared a ‘climate emergency’.
The Scottish Government’s response was swift: Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham committed to legislating for a net zero target by 2045 in the new Scottish Climate Change Bill.
This is incredible news and it has been welcomed by environmental charities, young campaigners, progressive businesses and citizens. Members of Scottish Environment LINK warmly welcomed the Scottish Government’s response; setting a net zero target by 2045 was one of the network’s key priorities.
A Roadmap to net zero emissions in Scotland
The next critical step is agreeing on the action that Scotland needs to take to achieve net zero. Again, the Committee on Climate Change offers some very important recommendations.
It highlights that Scotland has proportionately greater potential for emissions removal than the UK overall. In other words, Scotland’s nature and geography make it ideal for rolling out nature-based solutions which actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it away in soils and vegetation, a process known as carbon sequestration.
LINK members have long argued that nature is one of our greatest allies in tackling climate change. Throughout the deliberations around the provisions of the new Scottish Climate Bill, LINK members have maintained that nature is part of the solution: 1) We need ambitious emission reduction targets to protect our own wellbeing but also wildlife. 2) We need healthy ecosystems to ensure we enhance nature’s capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
Scotland’s nature already stores large amounts of carbon: • 50 megatonnes of carbon is locked in Scotland’s vegetation. • Scotland’s soils contain more than 3,000 megatonnes of carbon; 53% of that is held in our peatlands. • Agricultural soils have the potential to hold an estimated 115 megatonnes of it, equivalent to 22% of total carbon dioxide emissions from Scotland’s energy sector. • Scotland’s seas store more than 1,700 megatonnes of inorganic carbon.
The Committee on Climate Change highlights Scotland’s potential to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions through afforestation and peatland restoration. On peatlands alone, the Committee notes that ‘there is potential to more than double the area of restored peatland from 0.6 million hectares today to over 1.4 million hectares by 2050’.
Enhancing the resilience of Scotland’s nature will not only enhance the ability of our peatlands and moors to be carbon sinks, but also improve our biodiversity. When it comes to woodlands, Scotland’s Forestry Strategy states that ‘all Scotland’s forests, woodlands and associated open ground habitats provide some biodiversity value’, and suitably managed native, ancient and semi-natural woodlands contribute the most to biodiversity. The Strategy also says that ‘while the forest and woodland creation target will help deliver additional carbon reductions, the existing resource must also be managed sustainably to preserve Scotland’s carbon sink’.
The need for a healthy and resilient natural environment
A recent poll highlighted that one of the main reasons people are concerned about climate change is its implications for wildlife. Global evidence, such as the recently published UN Global Assessment on the state of the planet’s biodiversity, confirms that climate change is a direct driver of biodiversity loss while it also exacerbates the impact of other factors.
So not only are we in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’, but also a biodiversity emergency. Climate change it not only affecting our nature, but it is also making it much more difficult for species and ecosystems to cope with other pressures, thus aggravating the ecological crisis.
Here in Scotland, we are affected too. The joint LINK-WWF Scotland report ‘Scotland’s Nature on Red Alert’ produced earlier this year, illustrated that Scotland’s biodiversity is already experiencing a changed climate, affecting species abundance, distribution, their food sources, breeding and ability to adapt.
There is now a real danger that by not investing in the protection of our nature, we will undermine the critically important role it is performing in terms of carbon sequestration. Evidence suggests that if the health of our natural ecosystems deteriorates, we could be faced with a situation where vegetation becomes a net emitter of greenhouse gases by the end of the century.
Promoting nature-based solutions
Our nature is in peril, therefore nature-based options should be the foremost in the suite of actions to reach net zero by 2045.
From the outset, LINK members have highlighted 5 key actions needed in the Climate Bill to ensure nature can play its part: 1) Strengthening Scotland’s Land Use Strategy and introducing regional land use plans – Regional land use plans must be introduced to better guide how land is used at a local level and how land managers are financially supported to reduce climate emissions and help nature. 2) Introducing a nitrogen balance sheet by 2020 – The Scottish Government recently announced research to help understand how emissions can be cut from the use of nitrogen fertilisers. This work must be followed up with targets to reduce emissions and policies which enable better use of fertiliser. 3)Restoring peatlands and establishing a sunset clause for peatland extraction – Governments must start accounting for emissions from peatlands as early as possible. This will show honesty about historical emissions but also incentivise more restoration action to stop the huge amounts of ongoing emissions. The current funding for peatland restoration activities must be boosted to meet the targets proposed in the CCC’s report. Finally, the future of peatlands under threat from planned extraction of peat for horticultural use must also be made clearer through a sunset clause which sets time limits for decisions to be made on the status of these areas. 4) Recognising the importance of blue carbon stores – Carbon stored on the sea bed and at our coasts is vulnerable, so we must do more our marine ecosystems. A programme of coastal habitat recreation is also needed to sequester more carbon and help protect coastal communities. 5) Introducing a National Ecological Network – this is a long-standing Scottish Government commitment through the 2020 Biodiversity Route Map which seeks to introduce a national ecological network to help with the identification of priority areas for action on habitat restoration, creation and protection. Healthy habitats are critically important to removing carbon and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and therefore help us tackle climate change.
June will be a key month for introducing such ambitious policies. The Scottish Parliament’s Environment Committee will now play a critically important role for getting our net zero pathway right.
More than 22,000 people, including primary school children, have written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon calling for a Scottish Environment Act to protect Scotland’s nature and ensure Brexit doesn’t roll back crucial environmental protections.
The calls come at a time of renewed focus on environmental issues, with the Scottish Government committing to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, reversing plans to cut air passenger duty and announcing a deposit return system for drinks containers.
But campaigners fear that with 80 per cent of Scotland’s environmental protections stemming from EU membership, Brexit could unravel much of the legislation that helps us safeguard our wildlife and take action to tackle problems like air pollution. This could be detrimental at a time when our environment is in crisis, in Scotland and across the globe.
Jade of Sunnyside Primary School in Glasgow wrote to the First Minister saying: “Nature gives us everything we need and everything we have so it would be mad not to have laws to protect it.”
Haris of Hillhead Primary School also in Glasgow said: “I am only 10 years old and I feel very worried about what’s happening to nature. It’s not fair that children my age might never see the amazing wildlife that adults have taken for granted. Scotland needs strong laws to help stop this before it’s too late.”
A Scottish Government consultation seeking views on the measures that will be required to ensure that environmental standards are retained in the event of Brexit closed on 11 May. Environmental charities, wider civil society, businesses, academics and young campaigners took part.
Charles Dundas, Chair of Scottish Environment LINK, said today: “With 1 in 11 species in Scotland, both plant and animal at risk of extinction, we cannot afford to roll back on our environmental protections. Given the prospect of Brexit and the uncertainty this creates, we fully support the Government’s ambition to retain and build on existing EU protections. Now that this important consultation has closed we hope to quickly see a clear plan for action emerge.”
He added: “As the First Minister said last week, we must ensure that our actions produce the transformative change needed to protect our natural environment. It is therefore critical that any action we take to safeguard Scotland’s nature from the risks of Brexit also acknowledges the wider ecological crisis our nature is facing. A Scottish Environment Act would build on existing Government commitments on Brexit and help protect and enhance Scotland’s nature, now and in the future.”
Scottish Environment LINK, a coalition of over 35 leading environmental charities launched the campaign, Fight for Scotland’s Nature, to call for Scotland to have its own Environment Act. Together, they want an Act to embed EU environmental principles in Scots law, create an independent watchdog to enforce laws, and set clear targets for environmental protection.
Notes
(1) Scottish Environment LINK is the forum for Scotland’s voluntary environment community, with over 35 member bodies representing a broad spectrum of environmental interests with the common goal of contributing to a more environmentally sustainable society.
LINK is a Scottish Charity (SC000296) and a Scottish Company Limited by guarantee (SC250899). LINK is core funded by Membership Subscriptions and by grants from Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Government and Charitable Trusts.
(4) The petition calling on the First Minister to act with urgency to better protect Scotland’s nature through a Scottish Environment Act was run by Scottish Environment LINK and its members, with support from campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. A total of 22,181 people took part in the petition.
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